Biden’s passionate pro-Israel response in the days after Oct. 7 when its citizens were murdered, raped and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists now seem like a long, long time ago.
Biden at the time used words like “atrocities" and "sickening" and called the attacks “a violation of every code of human morality.”
The moral tone was clearly recognizable before he issued ultimatums to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tense phone call last week as the President, whose country was not attacked that day, took the lead on Israel's war policy.
Jews have voted Democrat without fail since 1916, according to the Jewish Virtual Library. Sometimes they favored the Democratic candidate with almost unbelievable numbers.
Before World War II was over, they supported Franklin Roosevelt with 82% of the vote in 1932 and 85% in 1936. They twice thanked him with 90% support in 1940 and 1944.
They supported Hillary Clinton with 71% in 2016 and Biden – in spite of Donald Trump’s record on Israel – with 68% in 2020.
“Donald Trump was the best president on the issue of Israel in recent memory. That’s an objective fact,” Matthew Faraci, a producer and public affairs strategist, said on Washington Watch Thursday.
Secular Jews are the key
It’s possible that times are a-changing.
“People in the secular Jewish community are starting to see the Hamas protests, the foreign policy of the United States right now, all of those awful things that are developing and really checking what those assumptions are,” Faraci told show host Tony Perkins.
The swing in secular Jews is important. Jews more committed to their faith are more likely to recognize Trump’s work for Israel.
The rise of antisemitism on U.S. college campuses, and in protests elsewhere, could help Trump overcome American Jews’ history with the Democratic Party.
Faraci compared the years-long comfort of American Jews to attitudes in Germany before the Nazi rise and Adolf Hitler’s wicked “Final Solution" to exterminate the Jewish population. Back then, Faraci says, family members who lived through the Holocaust described how they couldn't believe the rhetoric they were hearing from fellow Germans.
"Much like the rhetoric we’re beginning to hear on the Left, and we’re starting to hear some on the Right as well, that’s very concerning," he said. "They had a hard time accepting that things were going the way they were going,” Faraci said.
America has been "wonderful" to the Jewish people, who have become a "fundamental fabric" of the country, Faraci observed.
"Because of that, a lot of Jews feel very comfortable and are unused to this sort of new reality where you have the rise of Jew hatred. They’re kind of on default, and now those assumptions are being challenged,” he said.
Trump’s record on Israel
A small corner of the Golan Heights, just 40 miles from Damascus, was named “Trump Heights” in 2020 in recognition of Trump’s claim of sovereignty for the Jews in the area, which was seized from Syria in 1967.
Among other things Trump maintained a tough-on-Iran policy and moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem which recognized that city as the capitol of Israel.
But will Biden’s heavy hand with Israel be enough to loosen the Democrats’ stranglehold on the Jewish vote? A Sienna poll in February suggests it might. Registered voters preferred Trump 53%-44% the poll found.
Sam Markstein, national political director at the Republican Jewish Coalition, believes the poll is significant and reflects a shift among Jewish voters.
“Jewish voters moving towards the GOP is a clear trend, long in the making,” according to TheJC.com. He cited Lee Zeldin’s comparative success attracting Jewish votes in the 2022 New York gubernatorial election.
Faraci said the rise of hatred for Jews has drawn Jews closer to evangelical Christians.
“One of the things I think almost every Jew is recognizing is evangelical Christians, no question, are the best friends we’ve ever had," he said. "That is because you love God. There’s no such thing as antisemitism, it’s anti-Godism. That is to say if you hate the Jewish people, you’re rebelling against God."
